Mayo Biscuits

I once heard the Appalachian author and editor Ronni Lundy say, “There’s no such thing as a bad biscuit,” and the idea has stuck with me over the years as I’ve tried many times to prove her wrong: overworking, overcooking, and generally overthinking dozens of attempts. Even a botched biscuit has its charms when it’s slathered with salted butter or cradling a slab of country ham, but there’s something particularly heavenly about a well-made biscuit that’s warm and tender.

Biscuits are practically the state food of Virginia, where I’ve lived for most of my life, so I’ve made many of them over the years. My early endeavors resulted in humble, lumpy pucks. Then, once I started cooking professionally, I was responsible for baking dozens of super-flaky platonic ideals of biscuits daily. What I learned from all of those batches is that the best biscuit is the one you can get on the table quickly without a lot of fuss. There’s a time for freezing and grating butter, but for me, it isn’t pre-coffee. Nowadays, I gravitate toward a biscuit recipe that delivers exactly what I’m looking for: fluffy, craggy, flavorful biscuits that go from bowl to outstretched hand in about 20 minutes. To achieve this, I call on a secret weapon—mayonnaise.

Mayo biscuits are a Southern classic in their own right. Rather than butter and buttermilk, the oil and eggs in mayonnaise provide some leavening, flavor, and suppleness. The type of mayonnaise is important. Duke’s is the brand of choice for its quintessential tang. To increase the tang factor a bit more, I add a tablespoon of distilled white vinegar. Using self-rising flour, which already contains baking powder and salt, makes it a fuss-free recipe. Adding shredded cheese and chopped herbs does wonders for the flavor, making these biscuits downright crave-worthy.

Recipes for mayo biscuits often refer to them as drop biscuits, and you can certainly use a spoon or ¼ measuring cup to portion out the biscuits onto an ungreased baking sheet; but I find that the dough benefits greatly from a little shaping, so I fold it onto itself a couple of times to create even more height, resulting in tall, pillowy biscuits. If needed, you can make your own self-rising flour by whisking together 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1½ tsp. baking powder, and ¼ tsp. Diamond Crystal or Morton kosher salt.